In the spirit of the great variety of summer reading guides of all types, here are some of the most eye-catching of the year so far, with special emphasis on business, leadership, technology, personal finance and self-improvement:

The technological/cultural revolutions behind bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies, and the online public ledger blockchain that bitcoin operates on, are steadily gaining more public awareness, both positive and negative.

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In April, I attended a highly interesting bitcoin/blockchain panel discussion featuring Wall Street Journal reporters Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey, at the D.C. headquarters of Consumers’ Research, which has lately taken a keen interest and involvement in these subjects. Kyle Burgess, the organization’s director of operations, recently participated in the Block Chain Summit, hosted by Richard Branson on Necker Island. You can read her takeaways here.